Over Death, and Desolation,
Fireless hearths, and lifeless homes;
Over orphans' heartsick sorrows,
Patriot fathers' bloody tombs;
Over friends, that my arms never
Might embrace in love again;
Memory pondered until madness
Struck its poniard in my brain.
Deepest slumbers followed raving,
Yet, methought, I brooded still;
Still I saw my country bleeding,
Dying for a tyrant's will.
Not because my bliss was blasted,
Burned within the avenging flame:
Not because my scattered kindred
Died in woe, or lived in shame.
God doth know I would have given
Every bosom dear to me,
Could that sacrifice have purchased
Tortured Gondal's liberty!
But that at Ambition's bidding,
All her cherished hopes should wane,
That her noblest sons should muster,
Strive and fight and fall in vain;
Hut and castle, hall and cottage,
Roofless, crumbling to the ground;
Mighty heaven, a glad avenger
Thy eternal Justice found!
